To think that holiday let owners with 'unusual' house rules should have to make them clear on the advert?

[bsidecside]

We're regular holiday let-stayers as a we have loads of kids (5), and so have seen a variety of 'house rules' over the years. We're currently staying in an otherwise lovely holiday let that has a house rule that 'all refuse and recycling must be removed from the property'. We're not staying very remotely (small town on the coast close to other small towns) so I can't see any 'need' for this rule other than to cut down the cleaning at the end. Having to remove all our litter (which I'm trying to keep on top of as we go) is making me increasingly cross. I'm not saying I definitely wouldn't have booked if we'd seen this rule, but I certainly would have considered other options more carefully first!

Cheer me up with your tales of the weirdest - unexpected - house rules you've come across in a holiday let!

I always strip the beds but I am annoyed the current cottage is telling me to do so. They also stipulate eco products but haven't supplied enough dishwasher tablets so I've bought some from a different eco supplier.
The most annoying thing is it says don't move the sofas cos of proximity to the wood burner. The sofas do not allow six people to see the tv! We have moved one and obvs not using the woodburher!

We had one recently where you couldn't talk outside after 9pm or smoke in the the large garden.

Yes that's wierd and I wouldn't be happy to turn up and find that rule in place!

I'm happy yo put rubbish out as required but wouldn't be taking it elsewhere.

And they'd be getting a bad review!

We always rent through an agency and have never had any such crazy rules!

I'd just use the wheelie bin, that's what it is for. If they don't like it, they shouldn't have a holiday home and should only have one home where they can have their neurotic rules.

It's so not normal. It's not just taking the bin bags and recycling boxes outside and popping them in the property wheelies or communal bin. It's loading all your rubbish and a clanking boxes of empty bottles, pizza boxes, takeaway litter into you car and driving to a tip- which may have restricted access so you may have to drive it home.

Thats not normal!

Where I live because holiday let's don't pay council tax and the locals are fed up of subsidising them, the council are now charging them a set fee to do their bins. I bet it's this and they don't want to pay it so the house doesn't actually have a wheelie bin.

Wow - this is extreme. Puts my recycling centre trips into perspective!!

I agree with pp's who've said that the holiday let owners aren't paying the rates they should for removal of business waste.
Perhaps the refuse collectors have reported them before for having excess waste that's clearly from a business being picked up in a domestic collection, so now they're expecting their guests to conceal their activities for them.
Out of order.
Local residents pay their council taxes for services to support us, not to subsidise holiday let owners running their business on the cheap.

Yeah, I'll be honest, I'm always a bit miffed about being asked to strip the beds!

We had this in a cottage in Dorset about 15 years ago - they explicitly told us to take all our rubbish home with us. Our car was already crammed as we had 3 children under 5. Tip wasn’t an option as it was only open on certain days and I don’t think stuffing our household rubbish into public litter bins would be at all responsible. We decided the owners were being CFs given how much they were paying and ignored it and used their wheelie bins - never had any comeback from it.

In our cottage last year we had a neighbour come and shout at us on bin day for putting our rubbish out when apparently the owners should have paid for a commercial collection- he insisted the binmen wouldn’t take it and foxes would scatter it all over the road and he would have to clear it up. (Presumably this had happened before so I have some sympathy but the yelling was a bit much.) Luckily the binmen took it so everything was fine…

I don’t know how much councils charge for commercial waste but cottage owners trying to avoid paying it does seem to be a fairly common problem.

We stayed in a holiday let once and left the tiny bathroom window open when we went out. Three of us had had showers in quick succession and it was very damp and steamy.

The owners let themselves in in our absence and closed window leaving instructions the window must never be left open.

The next day we had a showers and left the extractor fan running which meant the light was left on.

The owners let themselves in in our absence and turned the light off, leaving instructions that the light shouldn’t be left on…..

The worst thing was the stay cost an absolute fortune, over £1500 per night, and we were on edge the whole time.

That was the last time I stayed in a rental. Hotels only for me now.

Sounds like a normal request to me. I had a holiday let and there was no car access (or for binmen) and the amount of times guests got it wrong despite quite clear directions was amazing. Plus there are rules about when and what bins can be put out. So it was easier just to say to remove it ( the cleaning woman was on foot so could not remove it herself).
What I hate is lots of little signs on things, and little breakable ornaments in a family house.

We stayed in a holiday home in France and the list of cleaning jobs to be done before leaving the property filled two double-sided sheets of A4.
Naturally I can't remember all of it but it expressly included hoovering under the beds.
The owner was a lovely chap and we'd got on very well with him during our six week stay but this took the shine off it somewhat.
Another French holiday property owner charged us an extra 50 Euros because we hadn't polished the leather furniture with the special polish before we left. (It was dusted/wiped but apparently this was not sufficient )

Adds another item to the list of reasons to never stay in one of these half arsed holiday cottages.

I'd rather pay more and stay in a hotel/B&B/guesthouse/pub, though whenever I have looked at prices this is normally the cheapest option. No spending your holiday doing unpaid work experience as a cleaner, no bonkers rules, breakfast cooked for you, no weird extra charges or lost deposits, towels and bedding provided, supporting the local economy. Much better.

over £1500 per night,

You are having a f(^&ing laugh!

It’s really not normal to ask paying guests to take all their rubbish home or to remove it themselves.

Its normal to have a outside wheelie bin so they can put it in there.

@PegasusReturns the owners letting themselves into the property (and having a. nosey) while you're out is terrible. What if they damaged anything or any of your items had gone missing? You wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
One place I stayed in specifically asked you to leave the bathroom window ajar after showering. Much more sensible.
Their behaviour merits a sharp comment or two on as many review sites as possible!

We stayed in a cottage once with a front door opening into a little porch area with coat hooks and a shoe rack...but no key provided for the front door! The only key they gave us was for the back door which opened directly into the kitchen. It was October in the peak district so we were doing lots of wet, muddy walks. Would have been really handy to be able to use the front door and leave all our muddy wellies and wet coats in the porch rather than making the kitchen floor wet and muddy every time

Another where we were expected to clean the entire house top to bottom, list of tasks to be completed (sweeping/hoovering all floors, cleaning sinks, baths and toilets, dusting etc) but they provided zero cleaning products and no Hoover or dustpan and brush. No fucking way was I buying a full set of cleaning products to clean someone else's house, especially when a cleaning fee was included in the booking!!

I also hate places with a dishwasher who don't provide any dishwasher tablets. We didn't used to have a dishwasher at home so it drove me mad having to buy a whole box of dishwasher tablets knowing we'd only use a handful of them. I don't mind places that leave a set number (although I expect there to be enough for 1 per day) rather than a whole box, but they need to be provided really. It's a small cost when you're paying so much for the booking

I’d be fuming they let themselves in while I had paid to use it.

Surely there must be some sort of rules against them just entering the property while you have paid to use it.

I think removing rubbish from holiday let type places is pretty standard.

We booked an apartment in West Hollywood for a couple of weeks with a company "who owned luxury accomodation in LA". After we had paid the final balance, we got an email telling us that if any of the other residents in the block asked, we were to say that we were friends of the owners and not to mention that we were renting. It turned out they were illegally subletting and were in an ongoing dispute with the owners, who clearly suspected this. A couple of days before we due to leave we found an enforcement notice on our rental car, threatening to impound the vehicle as it was "illegally" parked in the blocks garage. We spent the remaining holiday worried that we would find ourselves with an impounded rental car no way to get to the airport for our return flight.

How much is it costing you OP?
I stayed in holiday lets in the UK for the first time in many years last year. Totally amazed at paying £2k for a luxury apartment only to be expected to strip beds / empty bins etc at the end. I could travel abroad and stay in a decent hotel for the same amount. Needless to say I won't return.
I notice lots of S/C places are still unbooked this year. I reckon they've priced themselves out

I wouldn't book there. What a holiday downer.

Ok, erm, my family has over the last 18 years done self-catering holidays in UK and abroad in Europe in various Air B'nBs and holiday cottages. As far as rubbish is concerned, we just bag it up and leave it in the kitchen. Unless we stay for more than a week, I don't think we put the rubbish into the outside bins. Not had a problem with flies except in France where we did empty our food bin outside regularly for that reason.

So far, nothing bad has happened to us. I believe our deposits were not touched.

I don't tend to read the house rules much (and don't think Dh does either) but we leave the premises clean and tidy. My bad, obviously. We clean up so that we leave the property as we found it, just not emptied bins outside wherever.

Suprised no one mentioned it in reviews. I definitely would mention it in your review. If you were minded it may be worth emailing council I suspect they aren't fully above board letting the property out eg trying to avoid business charges. It's impacting locals as you are using street bins and the tip when they should be paying to have your waste collected. It's a hassle to go to the tip and they aren't always open - ours is closed mid week.